By Jase Walker
Today’s show takes me back to a venue that I go drinking at often enough but seldom come for gigs, Manchester’s YES in their aptly named Pink Room. It’s a proper lovely venue mind but seems to often be overlooked by many of the bands I listen to normally.
Supporting tricot on this show is Mumbles who I’m completely unfamiliar with but as I find consistently, this often leads to me finding bands I adore in the process so I’m really excited for this show tonight!
With only two bands on the bill for tonight this might be a relatively short show in comparison to many of the shows I’ve been to this year but I suppose it gives me a chance to really focus on what each band is doing.
As for Mumbles, well they’re definitely a bit of a we it’d one as they start out with a real punky style and then finish it off with a clarinet harmonising with the vocals. This is some real Bob Dylan on severe amounts of amphetamines sort of thing, I can’t think of any way to describe it. Oh wait, the clarinet is back, this is the bass player swapping out to play it by the way! There’s definitely some math rock inspiration in there somewhere as well, but it’s outright a bit weird but this is all just compelling me to stand here with a bemused grin on my face while they jump between what could easily be ragtime blues and back to thrashy punk.
Credit where it’s due, the guitarist has got quite a range on him, it goes as low every bit as it does high and it’s used to great effect on each song. There’s been more than a few moments where I’ve been looking on in perplexed amusement as they keep putting on more and more unusual parts into each passing song, it’s been bloody great to watch though! Even getting a massive cheer after playing a song that I’m pretty sure lasted about 20 seconds, Mumbles are full of surprises and I’m quite glad I went into this without really knowing them. I mean to put on a show like this, with all of its sudden swerves and segues into unexpected directions in the way they’ve done takes quite a lot of skill, not only to just do it, but do it really well. What a bloody weird show, very bloody entertaining though!
Right and after a brief break it’s now onto Tricot!
The room by this point is getting pretty packed, it’s fantastic to see such a massive turnout for a band that’s come from so incredibly far away and hopefully gives a reason for them to be back soon! Opening with a quick “We are heavy” before lovely math rock fills the room and again, the sound is fantastic too with the vocals of each member coming through clearly over the top of all the busy instruments. There’s something so wonderful about the Japanese approach to math rock, how it can be simultaneously relentless and yet so easy to listen to and Tricot along with the other Japanese math rock bands I’ve seen this year such as Paranoid Void and Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs epitomises.
It’s also notable how many women are at the forefront of this particular style, whether it’s just a reflection of the scene over in Japan or confirmation bias from the specific bands that happen to be able to make overseas shows; I’m not sure but it’s a nice change from the usual bearded men though. Every part of Tricot is focused intently on creating melodies that layer over each other and push to incredible crescendos, the vocals often used as part of that delivery rather than being used solely for lyrics. As a massive fan of anime and Japanese culture in general, anime opening and closing themes are often an integral part of a series’s identity as much as the actual story itself and often becomes its own “thing” and although they haven’t had any songs used in that way yet, they very well could be!
Tricot are fantastically pleasant to listen to, the overall sound is strong yet not overpowering. You can feel the drums and bass pounding through the floor but the guitars and their tasty licks are still audible with the vocal melodies being the icing on the cake. They’ve even put in the effort to learn a bit of English over the pandemic so they could talk to the audience, that’s so wholesome! There’s something distinctly Japanese about their riff writing and the effects they use to deliver them, often using lots of reverb and delay alongside playing extremely fast chord changes which feels almost funky. While being considerably more conservative in their visual performance compared to more metal-adjacent acts, it just adds to the feeling that they’re much more focused on their getting across what is often very complex music.
I’m loving the bigger prominence of Japanese math rock over the last few years and I really hope this continues! Tricot has been superb to listen to tonight and I’m privileged to have been able to see them do their thing. Miina-san sugoi! Arigatou!
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